This Mississippi statute, last amended in 2006, concerns the slaughter of livestock, such as cattle, pigs, and horses. The statute gives the Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce in Mississippi the authority to: 1) inspect animals before slaughter to determine if any are diseased and should be slaughtered separately, and 2) inspect slaughter establishments for humane methods of slaughter.

Statute Text:

(a) For the purpose of preventing the use in intrastate-commerce, as hereinafter provided, of meat and meat food products which are adulterated, the commissioner shall cause to be made, by inspectors appointed for that purpose, an examination and inspection of all cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equine before they shall be allowed to enter into any slaughtering, packing, meat canning, rendering, or similar establishment in this state in which slaughtering and preparation of meat and meat food products of such animals are conducted; and all cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equine found on such inspection to show symptoms of disease shall be set apart and slaughtered separately from all other cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other equine, and when so slaughtered, the carcasses of said cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other equine shall be subject to a careful examination and inspection, all as provided by the rules and regulations to be prescribed by the commissioner as herein provided for.

(b) For the purpose of preventing the inhumane slaughtering of livestock, the commissioner shall cause to be made, by inspectors appointed for that purpose, an examination and inspection of the method by which cattle, sheep, swine, ratites, nontraditional livestock, rabbits, goats, horses, mules and other equine are slaughtered and handled in connection with slaughter in the slaughtering establishments inspected under this article. The commissioner may refuse to provide inspection to a new slaughtering establishment or may cause inspection to be suspended temporarily at a slaughtering establishment if the commissioner finds that any cattle, sheep, swine, ratites, nontraditional livestock, rabbits, goats, horses, mules or other equine have been slaughtered or handled in connection with slaughter at such establishment by any method not in accordance with Sections 75-35-21(d) and 75-35-8 until the establishment furnishes assurances satisfactory to the commissioner that all slaughtering and handling in connection with slaughter of livestock shall be in accordance with such a method.